Every survivor has to face what happened to them at some point in their lives, but some don't even realize that captivity can be invisible. Trafficking - and slavery - begins with an emotional manipulation so that one thinks they actually were given a choice or somehow deserved the debts they pay. Some were born into it and grow up learning abuse is a form of love and making your captors happy is the only way to receive that attended-to feeling. Some are taught to view what's being taken from them as some gracious kind of "giving" back toward their debt even though it's a complete violation of their personhood. Some strengthen their resilience with the ability to withstand a silent beating or accept another half-hearted reward from their abuser, hoping all the while they're one step closer to the finish line. Survivors take on varying identities - none of them exact and all of them extreme in order to deal with the immense dissociation to live through such complex trauma, even while some of them don't even realize that what they have lived through is not sustainable for any human to grow in.

Survivors can look like a really strong, independent, focused, and successful individual who transfers all that abusive energy into exceeding at whatever they believe they must do. Survivors often have their purpose determined by completing what they're told to do and, even if they're removed from an unsafe situation, continue to feel displaced because the people they loved or trusted have weaponized love and trust against them. Survivors remain suspicious of law enforcement or government operations, even medical personnel, because their bodies hold the scorecard, and that's all they expect authority to see. Survivors don't even struggle in their shame but walk in it constantly with the belief that no one knows or will love them better than their trafficker - who has seen them do bad and be ugly - but remains. A trafficker sits beside the caged bird with key in hand, silently convincing everyone that the cage-bars are more a part of her than its wings. 

Would you believe that no matter how the survivor got into that cage, they deserve all the options and chances in the world to get out? Sparrow Place is convinced every survivor has a story AND wants them to learn how to use their wings. We have a goal to dismantle every single one of those cage-bars that made a human think they belonged as someone else's pet. I didn't even know what I had survived from was called trafficking, but that my own family members used systems of programming my mind and exploiting my weaknesses from a young age to make me think that all I was worth was what they said I should do. And I believe there are others like me who need someone in their community to help them break free. Whether it looks like sex, labor, forced marriage, or exploiting the innocence of any person under the age of 25 (when our brains are fully developed), what it does is take away options that every valuable human BEing has a right to!

After all, we live in a nation that declares: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Sparrow Place moves forward with the mission that every woman and child receive this truth over their own value as a human being - not a human doing. Chances are higher every day that you have come into contact with someone in your community that has been the victim of a trafficking incident or lifestyle. If every person would make the effort to be educated and share with their neighbors the reality of this spreading epidemic, truth could multiply the hope of their freedom. 

Help a survivor see themselves as worthy of your action, for "I know why the caged bird sings," do you?" 

-From a survivor-leader on the board of Sparrow Place investing in the freedom of survivors currently in trafficking as well as those who are just realizing that's what they were once a victim of. 

This is a space for you to visit, learn, gain helpful resources, receive prayer, be seen and be heard. We’ve gathered the additional links as resources for you to receive all the help you need in whatever next step you currently find yourself within.

Check back often for new resources and more insight.